City of a hundred towers — Lombard kingdom capital, Charlemagne's coronation city, and the Certosa of Pavia
Pavia is one of Italy's most historically significant small cities — it was the capital of the Lombard Kingdom (568–774 CE), the city where Charlemagne was crowned King of Italy in 774, and home to one of Europe's oldest universities (founded 1361, where Christopher Columbus studied and Volta invented the battery). Medieval Pavia once had 100 towers built by rival noble families; a cluster of three still stand together in the centre. The Certosa di Pavia, 8km north, is widely considered the greatest Renaissance monastery in Italy — a 124-year construction project begun in 1396 by Gian Galeazz…
Ticinum (Roman Pavia) was an important crossroads on the Po plain; it became the Lombard capital in 568 CE and remained the most important city in northern Italy until Charlemagne's conquest redirected power to Milan. The university, founded in 1361, became one of Europe's great centres of law, medicine, and science — Alessandro Volta invented the voltaic pile here in 1800. The Battle of Pavia (1525) — fought just outside the city walls — was one of the most decisive battles of the Italian Wars: Francis I of France was captured by Charles V, reshaping European politics for a generation. The V…